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Most pictures are from the Maine Bald Eagle Cam Discussion Forum's
thread on the Sooner Lake Eagle Cam

Additional info and pictures from the Hancock Wildlife Channel's
thread on the Sooner Lake Eagle Cam
 

This bald eagle pair has an extremely rare clutch of four eggs! The cam has streaming video, and is mounted on a telephone pole about 100 yards from the nest. There is also a nest-mounted cam, but unfortunately it seems to have failed completely, after working intermittently for a while. Fortunately it stayed up long enough so the staff at the Sutton Center could confirm that there were four eggs.

The nest is on Sooner Lake, near Stillwater Oklahoma. The current nest is on an artificial tower erected by the Sutton Avian Research Center and local utility OG&E to replace the original dead nest tree used by this pair after it fell down. The pair first built a nest in the dead tree in 1995, and laid their first eggs in 1996. Since then, they've fledged 22 eaglets, with three eaglets in 2000 and 2002. This is the first year they've known how many eggs were laid; they do know that three eggs hatched in 2007, but the youngest chick was unable to compete for food with its older siblings, so only two of them fledged.

The first egg was laid around February 1. These eagles usually lay their eggs about a day apart, so it's possible the last one was laid by February 7. This is closer together than most of the other nests I've been observing over the last couple of years - and because the nest cam was not available on a regular basis, it is a guess. It does suggest there could be chicks as early as March 7 - though like the Florida nests, we probably won't be able to see them for the first week or so, so we'll only know there's been a hatching when we see the parents start feeding.

 

(Thanks to Alan Jenkins, Assistant Director of the G. M. Sutton Avian Research Center, for the background information and the picture of the eggs)

Summary of 2008 Season:

• eggs laid: The first egg was laid around February 1. These eagles usually lay their eggs about a day apart, so it's possible the fourth one was laid by February 7. This is closer together than most of the other nests I've been observing over the last couple of years - and because the nest cam was not available on a regular basis, it is a guess.
• hatched: first maybe March 11 (39 days for #1); maybe second on March 12; some observers thought they saw a third - and then the cam went down; two eaglets in the nest on April 16 when the cam was fixed
• fledged: May 26 morning (76 days); June 2 7:40 am (82 days)
• last seen: both seen June 17 (~ 98 days or 14 weeks); one seen June 24 (105 days/15 weeks); cam down shortly thereafter

 
JudyB's photos - March 11, 2008
hatching?

 

Cam down March 14 - April 16

 

 
JudyB's photos - April 16, 2008
(about five weeks old)

 
JudyB's photos - April 18, 2008

JudyB's photo - April 19, 2008

 

 
JudyB's photos - April 21, 2008
(older is almost six weeks old)

Tulsa's photo - April 26, 2008

 
JudyB's photos - April 28, 2008

  
JudyB's photos - April 29, 2008
(older is seven weeks old)

 

 
JudyB's photos - May 6, 2008
(older is eight weeks old)

 

 
JudyB's photos - May 13, 2008
(older is nine weeks old)
"There's a lot of flapping practice and some flap-hops going on today! One seems to be getting more lift, but I think both were an inch or so up at the height of their flapping! And part of the time they were just standing there with their wings outstretched, feeling the wind and leaning into it - practice for soaring later, I suspect!"

glo77's photos - May 20, 2008
(older is ten weeks old)

 
JudyB's photos - May 20, 2008
(older is ten weeks old)

 
Tulsa's photos - May 26, 2008
Tulsa: "We have had bad weather, tornados, high winds very near the nest area - Another came through last night - I only see one eaglet today - Hope I am wrong - Sorry for the quality - but I wanted to get these posted."
JudyB: "They are old enough to fledge (barely) and have certainly been getting a lot of power in their flapping - so it could be fine. Haven't seen food brought to the nest while I've been watching - which makes me wonder if the other parent is with the other eaglet wherever he ended up."
Tulsa: "I think the older/stronger eaglet is the one that has gone missing. The other one has not been flapping much today."
(older eaglet is about 76 days old, other is a day or two younger)

 
Lolly's photos - May 27, 2008
(older is eleven weeks old)
The other eaglet was not seen at all on May 27; we did determine that both had been seen early on the 26th, which is after the worst storms passed through the area, making it more likely that the fledge was intentional. Alan Jenkins from the Sutton Avian Research Center also said he thought it was a fledge - this nest is a bit behind the average for the area.

Return of the Traveler - May 28

The eaglet who fledged landed back on the crossbar above the nest at about 11:20 am central time. The other eaglet went into what looked like a full mantle (or possibly a defensive) position in the nest when the other arrived, then gradually went back to a normal position. After almost an hour perched on the crossbar, the returning eaglet flew down into the nest.
 

 

The two siblings put on a bit of a display for each other, then tried some of their synchronized flapping:
 

 

A few more displays, then a chat about the traveler's adventures:
 

 

A parent showed up with food - and after a bit of mantling, both were quite happy to let the parent do the feeding! The second parent showed up in response to a call (not shown), and both seemed on alert for a moment - then relaxed. One of the parents went off for a while, but returned as the sun was setting. If you look closely at the final picture, you'll see the two parents on the crossbar, and two contented eaglets in the nest. The end.
 

 
JudyB's photos - May 28, 2008

JudyB's photo - June 3, 2008
Char - June 2 - "Just checked the nest today and it's empty...wonder if the 90+ degree weather prompted the eaglet that hadn't fledged yet to get a move on since they have no shade."

 
JudyB's photos - June 4, 2008
(about 12 weeks old)

 
JudyB's photos - June 6, 2008

 
JudyB's photos - June 10, 2008
(about 13 weeks old)

 
JudyB's photos - June 17, 2008
(about 14 weeks old)
While I wasn't able to watch every day, this was the last day I saw both of them together.

 
JudyB's photos - June 24, 2008
(about 15 weeks old)
I only saw one of them today - and s/he was only there for a couple of hours. I do like the second picture - s/he saw the parent arriving with food, and went into a full mantle pose - ignoring the fact that s/he didn't have the food yet to hide underneath all those feathers - and ignoring the fact that it's not easy to mantle on a wooden crossbar!

 

JudyB: I saw both parents but neither fledgling while I was watching on June 25. The next time I checked, the camera was down. They're not going to fix it - the fledglings are not spending much time in the nest these days. I mentioned to Alan of the Sutton Center that I was hoping to see how long they did hang around before heading off. This is his reply:

Alan from Sutton Avian Research Center: I too was hoping to see how long they stayed around. Some juvenile eagles we released in Oklahoma years ago all left the state for the Great Lakes/Canada in early June. I followed one by its radio-telemetry and found others in the same area by that method. I think the juveniles go north their first summer to escape the heat, then return to their natal areas in the late fall---at least at this latitude. The Bald Eagles in Florida did the same thing. When the heat comes, as it has done just this week, I wish I had wings too.